When the single middle-aged Luis travels from Barcelona to bury the remains of his mother in the vault of his family in Segovia, he is lodged by his aunt Pilar in her old house where he spent his summer of 1936. He meets his cousin Angelica, who was his first love, living on the first floor with her husband and daughter, and he recalls his childhood in times of the Spanish Civil War entwined with the present.

A radical American journalist becomes involved with the Communist revolution in Russia and hopes to bring its spirit and idealism to the United States. The true story of John Reed, the only American to be buried next to the Kremlin wall.